Pizzuto v. County of Nassau.

• Position: FAILURE TO PROTECT - Brief Article

U.S. District Court

WRONGFUL DEATH

OFFICER ON PRISONER ASSAULT

Pizzuto v. County of Nassau, 240 F.Supp.2d 203 (E.D.N.Y. 2002). The family of a county corrections facility inmate who had been beaten to death by corrections officers, brought a civil action against the county and officials. The district court held that the inmate's mother and father lacked a substantive due process right to companionship of their 38-year-old son. The court noted that the son lived away from home for six years and started a family of his own, prior to returning to occupy a ground floor apartment in his parent's house three months before his death. The court found that the family stated a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress under state law. The inmate had been sentenced to ninety days in jail on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of methadone. Upon admission to the county correctional facility, the inmate was assigned to a single cell in the facility's observation tier, based on his status as an inmate receiving...